I haven't seen her lately. I have, however, seen a small creature (usually dressed in footy pajamas) cruising about my house like she owns the place. She is mostly crazy. Lilah Rose has become this strange babbling thing who mocks me for fun. When I had a cold, she would grin at me and fake cough every time I had a fit of coughing. Dano found this wildly hilarious. If she attacks me to chew on my face and I yell for help, she sits back and give a mock shout to rival mine. After months and months of her parents trying to entice her to accept a pacifier with no luck in her early weeks, we gave up and settled for one of our fingers in her mouth to soothe her if she wasn't nursing. In the past few weeks, she discovered a pacifier laying about somewhere and has decided she loves it. To chew on, to throw around, and to suck on (normally upside down). Not at all a pun on my maiden name, but my baby is feral.
Not to say this time in her life isn't enjoyable. Fun would be an understatement. Dano and I often find ourselves breathless with laughter at her shenanigans and antics. I could watch her explore for hours. It's so amazing how the little wheels turn in her head, and how obviously those synapses firing are displayed on her quizzical face. Last night, I came home from work and Dano got her out of her crib so I could nurse her (as much for the benefit of my over-full breasts as for Lilah). After she finished, she spent a good 30 minutes "talking" to us and making strange noises and faces. She's fully convinced she's conversing with us and she's turned into such a mimic. She tries so hard to recreate any word we say to her. If we say "mama", she starts prattling away - "Mama. Ma. Mamama. Maaaaaama." The same goes for any other word blend we say. If she can't make the sound, she either starts into a new topic of conversation or just looks at us and shouts, "Aaaaah!" in a high-pitched, squealy tone.
I have forced her to sit through several hours of holiday favorites. She enjoyed Charlie Brown's Christmas, was indifferent to How the Grinch Stole Christmas other than the Whos breaking into unintelligible song, and barely paused her playtime during Eloise at Christmastime. Her playtime consists of much crawling about into corners previously unexplored by her immobile state. I bought her a lovely little toy called a Busy Ball Popper. While playing a happy tune, a fan uses bursts of air to pop colorful balls into the air, allowing them to momentarily hover before shooting them onto the carpet, theoretically causing the child to give chase to retrieve them. On the box, it proclaimed in large red letters, "Encourages crawling!" I fell prey to clever advertisement, paid my 17 dollars, and set it up on the living room rug. Lilah loved it and had the on-button figured out in less than a day. The only downside to the toy I could see was having a short daughter. She had to sit on her knees to reach the button. "She'll grow," I thought to myself. 24 hours later, Lilah had gone one step further. She had discovered that if she simply placed her hand over the chute where the balls popped out, she could prevent them from being dispersed throughout the room, therefore cutting down on the amount of time needed to go fetch them, put them back in the chute, and do it all over again. I was floored. How did my 9 month old outsmart the Busy Ball Popper in less than 72 hours?
Oh, and not only did she outsmart it, but as I was contemplating writing PlaySkool a letter requesting they take the cleverness level of their toys up a notch, I witness a new revelation dawn on Lilah's face. Rather than sit on her knees to activate the Popper, she could simply turn it on its side and push the button. This turned the toy from a Ball Popper into a Ball Cannon than launched balls at top speeds across the carpet at the cat, whoever happened to be in the way, or simply the wall, causing them to bounce back to her. With a squeal of delight at her discovery, I watch the makings of an Evil Genius. Look out, world.
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